apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Paint will have the most affect/$.

I think some varying shades of green would be great. I agree with Maxwell's suggestion about an accent wall, and I think an apple green would look really nice.

i agree with green/pear color

I forgot to mention that we are renting and can't paint...I wish we could! We don't even have the option of painting and then painting it back to white when we move out. So, artwork or fabric or shelving will have to do! I agree that pillows will bring in some needed color/texture/pattern.

Julie

Paint ideas:
1) (gutsy) - bright or deep red on the 2 walls behind sofa.
2) (more discreet) - light blue on same 2 walls. Not TOO washed-out of a blue; clear, clean blue.

Agree the rug is not ideal, either as room is, or with any of the ideas so far put forth. With either 1) or 2) above, a deep brown rug could look great.

Agree PILLOWS desperately needed to balance large swath of beige on the sofa, and to complement (i.e., contrast and/or repeat) the wall color - and other colors in small doses, so it does not look overly "done".

A large, dramatic plant would look good with either 1) or 2) above, as well as would one of those big, curvy floor lamps coming up and over from the gap (if there is one) in the corner of the sofa - pull the room together, and get a little glamour - chrome finish.
Artwork yes - but bold, not little bits and pieces!
You have the canvas, now - PAINT! :)

No painting? That sucks! Ok... maybe try replacing those white curtains with something in color (I'm still pushing green!), definitely adding pillows, a bold modern print on the wall, and those cube shelves you mentioned.

Oh dear, no paint allowed. Ok, let's see - how about:
- Vinyl wall decor (if it can come off), in black to be dramatic; this room needs an energy boost!
- "Rails" for leaning framed artwork. You could make two rails, one just above the top of the sofa - long wall or better, both - (careful it heads won't hit it), and another 1.5 feet above. Put small objects and photos on the lower rail, and large, bold prints or whatever, in COLORS on the upper rail. This allows changing things around, which is fun.
(Then do cushions to save the beige sofa…)
These rails are dirt cheap at Ikea (can be linked, and painted to match the white wall), or you can get sleeker ones elsewhere online. The Ikea ones are wide enough for small objects and vases, which I find useful.
Hope this helps!

If you can't paint the walls, I'd put a really large colorful painting over the sofa, swap out the curtains for something a lot brighter, and add throw pillows and perhaps some greenery around. There's a lot you can do with color and still keep white walls. Some shelving over the TV with some brighter accent pieces, maybe pottery, would be nice too.

My living room used to have the exact same color scheme and I was able to warm it up significantly while still keeping the walls white. Here's what I would recommend:

-PLANTS! It seems a little sterile in your apartment right now, and something living and organic will make a big difference. Make sure you get something big - replacing the large reeds against the wall with a big tree would do it. If you don't have much light there are a lot of low-light plants that would still do well, try a rhapis palm.

-Pillows and throws, all in matching colors to provide the most bang for the buck. I would use reds and purples in the fall/winter and greens in the spring/summer to keep the room feeling fresh; however, lots of colors look great with brown.

-Some nice large colorful bowls/trays on the bottom level of your coffee table will further pick up the color in your pillows and throws and help spread them across the room.

-Put another cube bookshelf side-by-side with the one you currently have. Your sofa is very large and everything else in the room is much smaller, giving you a scale problem. Making the bookshelf into a larger object will help rebalance the room. You can then arrange some fun, colorful objects to further warm up the space.

-Both your lamps are also way too small. Find an Arco-style lamp to put behind the couch (there are lots of affordable knockoffs out there). Rather than put a table lamp next to the TV, I would use uplights behind the tree which I'm hoping you'll put near the windows. Turn them on and you'll get interesting jungle-like shadows which will further liven up your space.

-In terms of art, I would not suggest shelves. Grouping artwork can also be tricky - a bunch of little things scattered around will again be distracting. I saw a great idea that would work here on a home show once: Find a really attractive photo calendar , carefully cut it apart and arrange all the images in a grid of 12 identical frames (cheap to get at Ikea). This would also work with a coffee table photo book - there are loads in the discount aisle at Barnes & Noble.

If you are of an artistic bent, try searching for "rasterbator" on this site (or Google). It's a site that blows up an image to a huge size and prints it out on small pieces of paper, so you can combine them into essentially a photo mural.

Hope this helps, and do post your "after" pics!

I rent too but managed to paint anyway:) If you can't paint here are a couple suggestions. I'm going to diverge and say go with Blue. But don't use just one shade, use 2-3 shades of blue. Use also Accent color Red. The contrast will be great.

Check out the BiColor Silk Windown Panel from West Elm. http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?partNumber=WE-PRODr460&storeId=17001&langId=-1&catalogId=17002&viewSetCode=E&parentId=WE-SH1RUGWIN&retainNav=true&cmsrc=WE-SH1RUGWIN

The Circles Rug also from West Elm
http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?partNumber=WE-PRODr371&storeId=17001&langId=-1&catalogId=17002&viewSetCode=E&parentId=WE-SH1RUGRUG&retainNav=true&cmsrc=WE-SH1RUGRUG

If you are looking for cheaper rug alternatives check out Ikea or Overstock.com

As for the walls: I suggest doing a combination of wall shelves and inexpensive art.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70081696


Accessories I suggest punching up the palate with Red
http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?partNumber=WE-PRODw321&storeId=17001&langId=-1&catalogId=17002&viewSetCode=E&parentId=WE-SH1WALART&retainNav=true&cmsrc=WE-SH1WALART
Put a blue or red throw blanket on the couch for accent

How about a colorful lamp?
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100353989&N=10000003 90401 500728&marketID=401&locStoreNum=8125
This one is very expensive, but you can buy a inexpensive one and purchase a deep red or blue lampshade

If possible change out the coffee table to a darker wood that matches the tv shelf.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50074550

I like the idea of brighter curtains, an arc lamp, and some plants. I was at ikea this weekend and saw their new arc lamp-- it's HUGE and fun and cheap at $39.99. Here's the link:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60103854

Also, if you're making an ikea trip, thay have little trees (I got a yucca) and big, tall planters for sale-- tall planters being a necessity for those of us with plant-munching kitties.

How about wrapping a huge commercial canvas with a colorful fabric that you like and hanging it above the sofa? See Andrew and Karen's Contrasting Condo in the fall colors contest (specifically, the piece above their sofa; they change the fabric during different seasons). http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/fall-colors-2007-east/fall-colors-east-finalist-1-andrew-karens-contrasting-condo-036113 This would inject a shot of color and personality, would be relatively inexpensive, and is something you could DIY. (You could even build the frame and stretch the canvas yourselves if you can't find a commercial size you like. See e.g., http://emptyeasel.com/2006/12/29/how-to-make-your-own-stretched-canvases-for-painting/) Then, as pretty much everyone else has said, add some colorful pillows and throws to the room. Good luck!

Paint. The. Bay.

Sorry for the double post, but forgot to add this. There are a lot of great photo blogs out there where the photographers generously allow you to dowload and use (with limits) their pictures for free. At my old place, I dowloaded and printed (at Walgreens) a series of beautiful, colorful 5x7 pics from such a site, framed them with cheap Ikea frames, and ran them horizontally up my stairway hall. It was super cheap and garnered a lot of compliments. Caveat: in my experience, with the free downloads, the quality is not as great for larger sized pictures. I found that 5x7 was about as big as I could go, so this idea is better for smaller accent pictures or groupings. **Also, if you go this route, be sure to read the photographer's licensing information carefully so that you don't inadvertently end up using the work inappropriately.

I think if you got some curtains that went from ceiling to floor above those windows, and then some sheers that were actually a color, as well, then when the sun filtered through the sheers, you might end up with some atmostphere on your walls.

It also looks like those walls behind your couch are angled, which is kind of interesting and you could play that up by painting on huge stretched artist canvases, which you could by at a craft store (Michael's always has them if you can make it out to New Jersey or somewhere out of Manhattan). I'm talking about something like 30" x 40" or larger, and put them on each of those planes, but have them each the same size, if possible, and then paint THOSE with latex paint, as if they're walls, and possibly vary them in different shades of one color.

I like the idea of a pear color, instead of an apple green for that. You could also have a simple design that runs across the several canvases in sort of a tryptich kind of way, at some kind of left-to-right-upward and yet somewhat jagged angle.

if you can't paint, maybe get the same effect as an accent wall by hanging a large tapestry that covers a large amount of area and does the same work as an accent wall? Might take a little bit of creativity to make sure it doesn't come out looking like a dorm room decoration...

Check out NinaRibena's entry in the color contest. She has done amazing things while keeping white walls and a basically neutral backdrop like yours.

http://sanfrancisco.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/fall-colors-2007-northwest/fall-colors-northwest-finalist-2-ninaribenas-lighthearted-playful-colour-036170

In addition to echoing what everyone else has been saying (curtains, plants, pillows), I'd add: paint your coffee table some bright color (that coordinates with your new curtains and pillows, of course).